


interdepartmental meeting # 6 - 12.5.2156 - notes

by MostGeckcellent



Series: Bright Futures Time Travel Agency [1]
Category: Les Misérables (2012), Les Misérables - All Media Types, Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
Genre: Alternate Universe - Office, Gen, Office, Time Travel, everyone attends an interdepartmental meeting, in which the time travel isn't the point because this is an office au, shenanigans ensue, that happens to take place at a time travel agency
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-14
Updated: 2020-12-14
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:14:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,807
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28072284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MostGeckcellent/pseuds/MostGeckcellent
Summary: Bright Futures Time Travel Agency is a longstanding establishment with a shining reputation. Its agents are skilled and efficient, and the missions it undertakes are dangerous, daring, and world-saving.This isn't about that.Bright Futures would be nothing without its hardworking office staff, after all. And they might not be jumping through time and saving the day, but they get up to adventures all their own.In this instalment, join Combeferre, an overworked IT staffer, at a biweekly interdepartmental staff meeting.
Series: Bright Futures Time Travel Agency [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2056437
Comments: 2
Kudos: 18





	interdepartmental meeting # 6 - 12.5.2156 - notes

“I see. And have you tried turning it off and on again?” Combeferre asks wearily into the phone. He is qualified to do so much more than this. So, so much more. This is the last time he agrees to cover for someone on the help line. 

There’s a minute of silence on the call, and then the noise of machinery restarting, and a triumphant shout from the time agent in question. “Yeah, looks like that worked. I can’t believe I had to be on hold for 15 minutes just for that.” 

There’s a message, Combeferre knows, an automated one, that plays whenever anyone calls this number, telling them to try restarting their machine before continuing the call. Despite this, too many calls are just.. this. 

“Is there anything else I can help you with?” Combeferre asks wearily. 

The agent doesn’t answer, just hangs up, and Combeferre sighs and hangs up the phone. 

“If you go on a murder rampage, I’ll help you cover it up - that is my specialty, after all,” a voice rings out from the doorway, and Combeferre looks up. 

“I didn’t think your job usually involved covering up murders,” Combeferre replies drily. Courfeyrac is standing in his doorway, grinning from ear to ear. 

“No, but I am in the business of coverups, I’m sure there are transferable skills.” Courfeyrac steps into the room, and instead of pulling up his own chair, deposits himself directly onto Combeferre’s lap. 

Combeferre just wraps his arms around Courfeyrac, like this is a normal, everyday thing. That’s because it is, of course - Courfeyrac has never been anything but tactile, with everyone, not just Combeferre himself. 

“I don’t think you’re supposed to call them coverups,” Combeferre adds. Courfeyrac works for HR, cleaning up after Time Agents, to make sure no one trace is left in the past to muddle up the future.

“Are you going to the departmental meeting?” Courfeyrac asks, and Combeferre nods. 

“No one else from IT wants to,” he frowns. The meetings might not be the most exciting things, but it’s important for everyone to know what the other departments are up to, and to build those relationships. “But I’ll be there to give our update, at least.” 

Courfeyrac nods. “There’ll be donuts,” he says. There’s always a bright side with Courfeyrac. 

The conference room begins to trickle full around 1pm, standard time. Combeferre is already there, as is Director Valjean. Courfeyrac slides into the seat next to Combeferre’s, bearing two coffees and two donuts, and Combeferre accepts one of each with a grateful nod. Cosette and Feuilly arrive together, and fill out their table. Nearby, Jehan is preparing to take notes, which will almost certainly be incomprehensible to anyone but themself. Jehan, of course, will be able to read them effortlessly, to the most minute detail, but only Jehan will have any idea what they say. 

Valjean begins the meeting. 

“Thank you all for taking the time out of your busy days to gather here,” he says. “As you know, I began implementing these meetings two months ago in order to foster unity between departments, and to make sure we’re all apprised of each others’ situations, needs, and capabilities.” Valjean has been the head of Bright Futures for as long as any of them can remember. He’s good at it, too - no one can help but respect him. His vision has changed the agency from a haphazard mess to - well, to a more organized mess, honestly. Time travel is inherently messy. 

“I’d like to begin, as usual, with our shoutouts,” Valjean continues. “First, to L’Aigle, without whom we’d have potentially had an intertemporal incident on our hands.” Bossuet had had the bad luck to spill coffee all over a dossier for a small-scale operation, one which wouldn’t have garnered much attention. In the effort to clean it up, though, he’d also spotted an incongruency which might have resulted in money being funneled the wrong direction through time, causing a very inconvenient situation for all of them. 

“Also, to our very own Agent Enjolras, for an outstanding job in Sauvigny this past week.” 

There’s a brief round of applause for both of the named shoutout recipients. They both receive a small gift card, and shake Valjean’s hand, and then return to their seats. Enjolras doesn’t even have to be here himself, Combeferre knows, but somehow he hasn’t missed a meeting since they began. 

“Right! And on that note, I’ll pass the mic off to get department updates. Subdirector Javert, would you care to begin?” Valjean asks, holding out the old-fashioned microphone he insists on using. 

Javert clears his throat, surly as ever, and steps up to the front, accepting the microphone. “Of course, director,” he agrees, a sour look on his face as he looks at Valjean. No one knows the full story there - Javert must be the only person capable of disliking Valjean, and Combeferre is curious why, but it isn’t his business. He’s pretty sure there’s a betting pool, though, amongst some of the others. 

“The legal department has been doing a cleanup of some of our older procedures, between the regular tasks,” Javert begins, beginning a painfully detailed and boring talk on the particulars of standard operating procedures and legal documents and other such things. “Compliance, in particular, has been very busy doing a thorough review of our intertemporal taxation procedures..” 

Bahorel catches Combeferre’s eye, and he makes a face, showing just what he thinks of this particular project. Combeferre isn’t sure how Bahorel ended up in compliance - he’d been a law student, he knows, from their lunchroom conversations, but he knows Bahorel hates lawyers, so it’s a mystery, truly. 

Javert finishes up, and Fantine takes the mic next. She’s the subdirector who heads the field agents, and Combeferre glances at Enjolras, who is furiously scribbling down notes, and at Montparnasse, seated at the back of the room, apparently taking a nap. She doesn’t go into details about the missions, just says that, for now, everyone’s work is on schedule, and she is sure to thank the members of the various teams supporting the field agents, without whom their jobs would be impossible. 

Combeferre is called on next. He isn’t a subdirector, but he thinks he’s on a good track to get there, someday. His boss is on vacation, though, and he’s asked Combeferre to make his report for him. So he clears his throat, and takes the mic, ignoring Courfeyrac’s wolf whistle, and Grantaire’s sardonic cheer from the back of the room, where Combeferre is pretty sure Grantaire is drawing caricatures of the various people in the room. “Right. IT has been pretty busy, the new model of time watches have been giving us some grief. R&D is working on a patch, we’ll be rolling it out on Sunday at 2am Standard. An email has gone out already, agents should be mindful of the fact that there may be outages for about three hours after the release.” From there, it’s simple - a matter of balancing technobabble with accessible language, keeping it to the highlights and not getting lost in the weeds. A few shoutouts to some of the developers on his team, and to a help desk employee who handled a particularly time-sensitive issue earlier in the week. Then he’s handing the mic over to Irma, who is the subdirector for the Costuming department. Cosette gets a shoutout for her innovations in recreating an elusive 14th century blush technique, and Feuilly for his dedication, as usual, and then they all get a reminder about the standard turnaround times for costume requests. 

“We’re just asking everyone to keep in mind that it takes time, to get these things right, and that small inaccuracies can really stand out,” she’s saying. “So please, for the sake of our very dedicated and talented team, keep that in mind, and try to avoid rush orders. Thanks.” 

“A very important reminder, Subdirector Boissy, thank you,” Valjean says. They get through the rest of the updates from the various departments, and Combeferre knows he said himself that these are good, and important, but god, there has to be a better way, because it’s been an hour and even he is close to stabbing something with his pencil. He’ll probably take it out on a particularly frustrating bit of code for the time watch patch later, when this is over. 

Finally,  _ finally _ , Valjean takes the microphone back. “Right! This was very helpful, thank you everyone who’s been so good about coming to these. Please don’t forget to RSVP for the end of year staff party; I know we’ve been working hard through peak season, and we all deserve a chance to celebrate our incredible successes this past year. Really well done, everyone. Don’t forget to take part in our lead-up events, as well - there will be prizes, I’m told, for the teams to do best in the time loop scavenger hunt, and we’ll be having an escape room event on Wednesday.” 

And with that, the meeting is dismissed. Most of them hang around for a little bit afterwards, just to chat. “Did you see the way Javert was glaring at Papa?” Cosette is saying, wide-eyed. She’s Valjean’s adoptive daughter, and she’s a genius with hair and makeup in Costuming. He respects her work a lot. 

Marius, a dialect coach and translator, is nodding at her, wide-eyed. Combeferre is pretty sure that he would agree with anything she had to say. The only one less subtle about his crush in this entire organization has to be Grantaire, who is still sitting at the back, alone, doodling. Joly and Bossuet are on their way to ambush him, though, Combeferre notes, so he lets Grantaire be. He watches Joly and Bossuet cajole Grantaire into getting up and joining the rest, and Combeferre himself retreats to where Courfeyrac and Enjolras are discussing something animatedly. 

“-and that’s why it’s so important that we reduce barriers of entry to jobs like this,” Enjolras is mid-sentence when Combeferre arrives. 

“I agree with you, dude, preaching to the choir,” Courfeyrac nods. “Have you brought it up to Valjean? He’d listen, you know he would.” 

“Is this about what you were talking about earlier, opening up to non-student internships?” Combeferre asks, hopping in. “I was thinking about that, actually-” He starts talking, and Enjolras and Courfeyrac fold him into their conversation effortlessly. There isn’t time to get into it properly, of course, they all have to get back to their own jobs, but they usually meet up a few times a week at the Musain, nearby, so Combeferre knows there’ll be an opportunity to continue their conversation later. 

And in the meantime, there’s a call on line one. Combeferre fights the urge to sigh, and picks it up. “Hello, you’ve reached the Bright Futures Helpdesk, what’s your issue?” 

  
  
  
  



End file.
